A Warm Reunion

Janssens Meets Trainer Who Saved Him

January 10, 1997|By MICHAEL ARACE; Courant Staff Writer

CALGARY, Alberta — Eight years ago, when Mark Janssens was fighting his way to the NHL, he very nearly lost his life.

Janssens was playing for the Denver Rangers of the International Hockey League. Late in a game against the Calgary Flames' affiliate from Salt Lake City, Janssens dropped the gloves with his tough- guy counterpart, Martin Simard.

``I had gotten cross-checked into the boards the shift before,'' Janssens said, ``so I was a little out of it anyway. I got in a fight, lost my balance, lost my helmet and boom.''

Janssens head bounced off the ice.

His brain swelled.

He went into a convulsion.

The trainers -- Denver's Corky Osborne and Salt Lake's Brian Patafie -- rushed onto the ice. They found Janssens, unconscious and writhing out of control, had swallowed his tongue.

Eight years later -- as Janssens and his Whalers teammates were preparing for their game Thursday against the Flames at the Saddledome -- Janssens had an unexpected reunion.

He discovered that Patafie, the former Salt Lake trainer, was working for the Flames. A reporter from a local newspaper arranged for them to meet.

``It's a funny thing, I know, but I've never talked to [Patafie] before,'' Janssens said. ``I should have called him years ago. I'm always thinking about [Patafie and Osborne]. Not a day goes by when I don't think about them.''

Janssens and Patafie had a warm embrace. Their pictures were splashed all over one of the newspapers. Their story was retold in graphic detail. It is etched in both of their minds.

Once Janssens had gone into the convulsion, his jaw locked shut. The trainers knew they had to somehow unlock the jaw and pull Janssens' tongue from his throat. If that couldn't be accomplished -- fast -- Janssens would suffocate to death.

Patafie took the butt-end of a pair of scissors, knocked out one of Janssens' loose teeth, worked the butt-end of the scissors through the small opening and pried open Janssens' mouth. With the risk that his fingers might be bitten off, Patafie reached into Janssens' mouth and dislodged the tongue.

``I was out cold, so I really wasn't scared,'' Janssens said. ``But when I woke up in the hospital, I said, `Are you kidding me?' ''

Janssens woke up in a CAT scan machine. He had a subdural hematoma; his brain was badly bruised. He also had a fractured skull. He spent three days in the hospital and three months on the injured list.

``I'm eternally grateful,'' Janssens said. ``If it wasn't for those guys, I wouldn't be here. People underestimate what people like [Whalers trainer] Bud Gouveia do for us. I don't underestimate.

``I'm glad I finally met [Patafie]. I'll never forget him.''

Patafie has tracked Janssens' career and was always curious about him.

``I guess I never really put the incident in perspective until I met Mark,'' Patafie said. ``He's a great guy. Something like this restores your faith in the game.''

Giguere starts

Whalers goaltender Jason Muzzatti, who was lost in a pile of goalies during his five years in the Flames organization, was relishing a start at the Saddledome. But Muzzatti was stricken with a nasty flu. The virus had hampered him in Montreal on Monday and subsequently worsened. Muzzatti was scratched. ``This is the place where you want to have Muzzy in the net -- it's his ex-team and he's excited about playing,'' Whalers coach Paul Maurice said. ``He's not going, so you know if he has a little bit of flu, he has got a lot of it.'' Rookie Jean- Sebastien Giguere got the start. . . . Because of groin pulls, right wing Nelson Emerson had missed three games and center Jeff O'Neill two. They were back in the lineup Thursday night. . . . The league has been plagued by groin injuries. Why? The two most prevalent theories are uniformly poor ice conditions and the onus on officials to let marginal calls pass. ``Those two things are right -- especially the part about the ice,'' Emerson said. . . . Right wing Kelly Chase (knee) was questionable up until game time. If he was unavailable, Maurice was planning on using Paul Ranheim at right wing on the fourth line. . . . Center Kent Manderville was a healthy scratch. . . . The Flames were riding the crest of two come-from-behind victories. ``You can read a lot of books, but these two games are worth a lot of books and a lot of speeches,'' Flames coach Pierre Page said. ``Winning is half believing and we believe right now. We believe we can win.''